Pinks All Out at Bakersfield Sept 11-12

[meanchicken]

Had a good time Donnie. Glad I was able to come give moral support. Also good to see Lee, Ray (sytech), Mike (Nordy) and Harold (the man with many names:biggrin.

I also learned a lesson from Lee.
Blue bottle good; white bottle bad.:tongue:

That run was fun to watch. The people at the staging and start area were astonished too. There was the typical chatter you hear as people notice a GN pulling up to the line and step closer to the fence to watch. People love watching these cars buzz down the track.

Then when you launched and the other guy got out in front, they all thought it was over and a few groand, etc.

Then when you came into boost and chased him down, people were going wild. Even the host, Rich, was making some comments. I'd be surprised if your run does not make the highlight reel on the hour show. It's supposed to air on Thanksgiving.

I got home around 1:30AM after a couple stops for food, gas and coffee. The last 45 minutes were pretty shakey. I woke up at one point on the 5 around Knott's Berry, one lane over from where I had been before I nodded off and was riding the lane markers into the next lane. I looked in my mirrors and saw some poor guy dropping back to give me room so I must have nearly taken him out during my nap. I spent the rest of the drive slapping myself across the back of the neck to stay awake. It was a looooooong, hot day.

 

[cruzn57]

blue bottle good?

hey what goes on in Bakersfield .... STAYS in bakersfield! LOL
I'm just glad we caught it,
I know what your talking about, (sleep driving) thats why I wanted to head out as soon I could.
Thanks again for your help Tim,
It was Fun! ( and hot)

 

[Alky V6]

On that last pass on Saturday, they were pairing us with cars that were in our same class. My class was G. That's cars that run 9.50 to 9.99. It made the qualification runs a little interesting.
The other car had about a 2 to 3 car lead by the 330 mark. When the car came on boost, we reeled him in and went flying past him at the finish for the win. Cheryl was in the stands with the video camera, and you can hear on the video some pretty astonished individuals.

I just reviewed the video that Cheryl got of the last pass, and it was more like a 4 to 5 car difference that I had to make up. Wow. I'll get it posted soon.

I want to thank everyone that showed up. It made it much more fun for Cheryl and I. I just wish it wasn't so dang hot. I'll get a short video of our best pit action posted soon.

I wasn't going to say anything, Lee. Meanchicken blew the cork.

I'm glad everyone made it home safe.

 

[Alky V6]

Pinks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AZumqEdMUE

 

[cruzn57]

what???

Quote"I wasn't going to say anything, Lee. Meanchicken blew the cork."

last time he blew a seal! he gets around!

 

[Chevota]

I'm running an older design 4 vane Moroso with an open breather. The seal was installed like normal. Lip facing forward. It never gave me a problem before. Is there something I should know?

Do you have a way to monitor or datalog crankcase pressure? Rear seals are designed with positive pressure in mind. Under negative pressure(vacuum) the seal is being pulled the opposite way and I know of several engine builders that reverse them when using a pump. Something to think about.

 

[Alky V6]

Do you have a way to monitor or datalog crankcase pressure? Rear seals are designed with positive pressure in mind. Under negative pressure(vacuum) the seal is being pulled the opposite way and I know of several engine builders that reverse them when using a pump. Something to think about.

Finding out what the crankcase pressure is, was on my mind. I'm sure it's positive. I've already had to fabricate a special front seal deal to keep the lip from blowing outward. Awhile back, I was using one of those special big lip front seals that would account for any offset of the timing cover seal bore to the crankshaft centerline. The lip was way to big to handle high crankcase positive pressure and it easily blew/flipped the lip of the seal outward. I went to a standard small lip seal and did some mods to the front cover to center the seal to the crankshaft, better support the seal against blowout, and make seal replacement much easier.

I may upgrade the vacuum pump to a later more efficient design that Moroso has, and add another breather. I have only one that is open so that the vacuum pump can ventilate the block. The oil lasts much longer that way with the alcohol fuel. I'll probably put a check valve on the extra breather line so that the vacuum pump will ventilate the block through the far mounted breather for best ventilating, and then when the crankcase goes to positive, the check valve will open and both breathers can work to relieve crankcase pressure.

I've already looked at the rear seal and from what I can see it hasn't flipped. There is also a drysump lifter valley suction line routed in the back of the block that I'm going to check. I can see a dent in the wire covering that I don't believe was there before. Is the hose moving with pressure and contacting the converter mounting bolt heads on the flexplate?

If I can get this excessive crankcase pressure relieved, does that mean there's some HP to be had? Good Grief!

 

[meanchicken]

Quote"I wasn't going to say anything, Lee. Meanchicken blew the cork."

last time he blew a seal! he gets around!

Good one, lee.
That made me do that LOL thing.:biggrin:

Hey...remember when you were a kid and you used to blow Bubbles....
We'll a cop friend of mine arrested him the other day and he said he misses you and wants to know why you won't invite him to your birthday parties anymore.

 

[Drewster]

man that car pulls hard!

i cant believe you made up that lead! that car has to be a blast to drive!

A

 

[Alky V6]

Found the oil leak. It's not the rear main seal. It's not the valley oil suction line. It's not the galley plugs. Block is OK.

The oil was coming from the back of the block. What else is there?

The person that posts the answer first gets a lolly pop. :biggrin:

 

[baadgn]

Found the oil leak. It's not the rear main seal. It's not the valley oil suction line. It's not the galley plugs. Block is OK.

The oil was coming from the back of the block. What else is there?

The person that posts the answer first gets a lolly pop. :biggrin:

The block flexed and popped out the Cam plug

 

[cruzn57]

I found the oil leak!

it was on this car!

 

[cruzn57]

I found the oil leak,

it was on this car !!!!!!

 

[Drewster]

Rear Main Cap to Block seal?

 

[Alky V6]

The block flexed and popped out the Cam plug

Well, I'm not sure exactly why it did, but yes, the cam plug popped out. Lolly pop for you.

Anyone running a TA block should do something to retain the cam plug. I've heard that the later generation blocks have drilled and tapped holes around the cam plug for this purpose. USE THEM!!!

 

[datquick6]

i was there when u made that pass and wow does that car hit hard....
i was amazed....
i took a couple friends and told them about a gn that was gna run...
at the begining of the race we were like awwww....
and all of a sudden u made up like 4 cars worth and i turned to see their faces.....

speechless.....

 

[Alky V6]

That run was pretty exciting for me too. At about the 1,000 foot mark I was skating around quite a bit from the oil leak the pit crew would discover later, and almost crossed into the other lane. There was a tiny bit of throttling on my part, but the mission remained getting to that finish line first.

Cool pics, Lee.

 

[meanchicken]

I'm thinking that other driver had to be poopin' in his pants watching you reel him in like he was stuck in a Death Star tractor beam.

 

[Alky V6]

I'm thinking that other driver had to be poopin' in his pants watching you reel him in like he was stuck in a Death Star tractor beam.

LOL. I like the Death Star tractor beam thing.
I've gotten comments like, "Man! That was a trip when you flew past me at the finish line", at my home track. The look in their eyes is as if they had just gotten off a new roller coaster ride. I always wondered how people would feel about that. I would think some would be a little ticked off. I was a little surprised when I started getting comments like that, or one time, on the turn off the track to enter the return road, one racer slowed to a stop, looked at me, and gave me a thumbs up. That caught me a little by surprise. Didn't really know what to think about that. Are there racers in the pits that are saying to each other, "Yeah. Get paired up with Donnie. It's a trip when he blasts past you at the finish like you're standing still."

 

[Alky V6]

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